Been on Carnival AND Royal Caribbean?

[yogimax]

The biggest difference for me is in the loyalty programs. RCCL's benefits after ten cruise credits far exceed Carnival's. The nicest benefit is a nightly gathering with complimentary wine, champagne and soda.

[dan40]

I have more than 10 cruises on each line.

Food=Carnival, easily and always.

Ships=RCL, easily and always.

Price= Check each and every cruise. Carnival is less most of the time but not all.

Entertainment and service is ship by ship, NOT cruiseline by cruiseline.

 

Itinerary is our interest. Not loyalty programs, not ships. Just being on a cruise on the ocean, going to visit someplace,thing interesting.

[Mybearsbaby]

We have sailed 3 times on Carnival(all different classes), and just got off our 1st RCI (Navigator OTS).

 

We liked them all, and like others, there were a lot of similarities. I felt that RCI had a better sports deck.

The food was comparable. The rooms were nice on both. I would have missed my robes, but all I had to to was ask the room steward on RCI, and she brought me two to use during our trip. She was awesome ;)

The dining room staff is excellent on both, but RCI doesn't entertain you like Carnival does, except on the last night.

RCI has Ice Shows on some ships, and they are amazing!!

I did notice that RCI doesn't let you buy your ship pictures on the disembarkation day...so I missed out on buying any of my pics...:(BUT, this was my fault...I should not have just assumed that they would be like Carnival and offer them on the last day, so I do not fault RCI, I just know next time :)

The only other bad thing about RCI was the "business side" IMO. They overcharged my credit card 4 TIMES for an excursion, then acted like it was my fault!! I had to argue with her and show her on paper before she fixed it. ( This was one particular employee, so once again, I do not fault RCI as a whole, and am willing to sail with them again. You can't fault the whole company based on one bad experience with one person.)

Other than that, it was a lot of fun, and both lines will give you a great vacation...we pretty much look at which itinerary is better for the price. Good luck and have a blast wherever you go!!

[novellaherman]

We are die hard carnival customers (7) but this past summer due to a scheduling conflict wound up taking our second RCI cruise aboard the Mariner. I thought the cruise was nice, the boat was very different from carnival boats however there were a lot of things that we found that we missed. The 24 hour ice cream was a big one, my husband LOVES this feature, he can grab it and go any time he likes. I dont know if this is a new thing but I hated the hand santatizer police. You could not enter the buffet without using it........I know I understand that this is for everyones bennifit but it was a constant hassle. I also HATED that I could not get a drink by myself in the buffet area, there are times during the day when I would wander in and just get a glass of ice.......not possible on the mariner. All self service drinks are gone, they have a drink sation with drinks already poured......with the ice melting in them sat out at drink stations. You can not get a drink that is fresh and not diluted. Also we favor the food aboard Carnival, especially the optional dinning room items. I have to admit we LOVED the adult pool area on RCI it was lush and tropical feeling and was great to get away from the loud and noisy main pool. But we did miss the option of using the water slide. I do wish that carnival would expand their room service menu to include warm items especially for breakfast......but all in all we will be returning to Carnival, infact our cruise aboard the Conquest is booked for April.

[going to see the world]

Thank you so much for the advice/help everyone! It's very appreciated. :D

I was wondering if tips were the same as Carnival. Just curious about how much extra I'd have to spend. Thanks! :)

[firefly333]

I also HATED that I could not get a drink by myself in the buffet area, there are times during the day when I would wander in and just get a glass of ice.......not possible on the mariner. All self service drinks are gone, they have a drink sation with drinks already poured......with the ice melting in them sat out at drink stations. You can not get a drink that is fresh and not diluted.

 

We ran into this on Voyager .. but I was just on both Majesty and Liberty OTS and had no problems getting my own drinks.

 

In fact, I was extra pleased because we had those SF enhanced flavored waters on both ships. Mango was my favorite, but they were all good. Punch even I think and I was thinking of the punch that Carnival used to have.

 

RCL had a self serve soft drink station on Majesty that I loved the idea. They code the bottom of the cups and the machine knows if you paid for it. You dont have to go bother a bar tender now. Great idea I thought. Get your own soft drink reills. If you want a refill you had to wait 5 minutes.